Of all the mystifying injustices that are seemingly allowed to continue unpunished in our oft-disfunctional world, none is more bizarre than the refusal of some of the world’s major powers to reproach an increasingly paranoid, aggressive, and militaristic state acting with an apparent sense of impunity not even matched by those favourite pariahs, Iran and The DPRK. A nation that is committing state-sponsored ethnic cleansing and enforces the ghettoisation of a poor-in-every-sense and demoralised populace in a brutally fascistic desecration of the principles upon which the state was founded.

Netanyahu‘s re-election will ultimately prove a disaster for Israel itself, the Middle-East, and the wider world. When Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a key figure amongst Hamas’ leadership, was murdered in Dubai earlier this year, Western governments condemned (justifiably) the use of their citizens’ stolen identities as part of the Mossad operation, yet little criticism was made over the potentially destabilising effects such a killing may have. Netanyahu personally authorised the operation and so appears to hold the same contempt for any peace process that many of his predecessors shared.

Usually faced with predictable and preposterous cries of anti-Semitism, it is a brave individual who publicly seeks to condemn the contemporary Israeli approach to foreign policy. Yet condemn them we must. The line at which Israel’s actions could be seen as legitimate self-defence has long passed (although Hamas’ pointless and self-defeating rocket attacks should also rightly continue to be subject to criticism). Should Obama take a stronger position upon Israel’s antagonistic behaviour, with support from other disillusioned Western parties, Netanyahu would have to rethink his approach to governing. Should he fail to do so the repercussions could be catastrophic.

The sheer belligerence, nee arrogance, of Israel’s present approach has to be challenged in order to retain some semblance of a peace process, and, subsequently, relative stability in the Middle East. The lack of discernible popular political plurality is extremely damaging – Israel (and the wider world) would undoubtedly benefit from a period of good governance from a fair, socially progressive and internationally engaged party from the left. Switching between the centre-right to far-right and back again merely reduces the democratic choices for the Israeli population and, ultimately, the life choices for Palestinians.

This would be a fair agreement. An unfair one could yet arise. Should Netanyahu’s administration persist with their present policy approach, the implications are uniformly grave. Continued attacks upon Gaza will only serve to legitimise violent Palestinian reactions, whilst simultaneously tearing apart the foundations upon which the Israeli state was founded and the horrors that led to this. Perhaps the most upsetting facet of the modern Israeli state are the echoes with Nazi Germany – clearly there is no mass extermination plan for the Palestinians, yet the creeping ethnic cleansing associated with settlement building, economic ruination, and militaristic bullying, is rapidly becoming a scandalous tragedy. The memory of the Holocaust grows stronger by the day, whilst remaining seemingly invisible to the Israeli government. That a nation founded in response to one of the greatest atrocities the world has ever witnessed should turn out as modern Israel has, is not only an appalling indictment of the failures of 20th century foreign policy, but also a brutal and cold insult to those millions of victims who lost their lives to such an impersonal, undignified, mechanical slaughter.